14 ARCHAEOLOGY • July/August 2019FROM THE TRENCHES
A
t a 4 , 500 -year-old necropolis in northern India, archaeologists discovered a
grave containing the remains of a man and a woman who seem to have been
buried at the same time. The burial is one of some 60 graves that have been
recently unearthed near a settlement known today as Rakhigarhi. Rakhigarhi was one
of the largest cities of the Indus Valley, or Harappan, civilization, which flourished
from 2600 to 1900 b.c. in what is now Pakistan and northern India. The couple were
interred in a pit along with ceramic vessels and an agate bead. “The skeletal remains
of both individuals were well preserved,” says Deccan College archaeologist Vasant
Shinde, who led the excavations. “The manner in which they were buried, with the
male facing toward the female, could commemorate their lasting affection, even after
death.” Analysis of the skeletons showed that the two were between 21 and 35 years
old when they died. They are the only known Harappan couple to have been buried
together in the same grave.
—Gurvinder SinGhA PLOT OF THEIR OWN PICNIC
FOR THE
AFTERLIFE
Y
ou might have seen a delicacy
known as “century eggs” on
Chinese restaurant menus or
on the shelves of Asian markets and
wondered, “Are those eggs really 100
years old?” (Answer: They aren’t. It
actually only takes about a month to
make them, using a pickling liquid made
from lye, salt, and water, and then rolling
the eggs in mud and wrapping them in
rice husks.) In a recently excavated tomb
in eastern China’s Jiangsu province,
however, archaeologists found a jar filled
with eggs dating all the way back to the
Spring and Autumn Period ( 770 –ca. 475
b.c.), making these incredible edibles
at least 2 , 500 years old. Sadly, only the
shells remain.
—jarrett a. LoBeLLHarappan couple burial, Northern IndiaPottery vessels and eggs